Why I hate like

I hate like. ‘Like’ is such a neutral term, and one that has, like, been rendered, like, meaningless through over- and misuse.

This is not the first piece written about this dilemma. Others have proposed the need for a hate button, pointed out the technical risks of liking, and bemoaned the facebookification of the web. (I have even liked some of these posts).

My beef is that ‘Like’ is such an inadequate term for such a range of networked ideas.

The social currency of opinion, user recommendation, and retweeting is actively defining agendas from product development, citizen journalism drives political change and the dot org revolution sees millions of people engaged in issues they may never have had the chance to be exposed to a decade ago thanks to online campaigns.
I propose that we need some new categories to cover this range of human behaviour online.

Granted, there are other ways to share discoveries: you can stumble, dig,blip, proclaim you’ve read it, or choose from a multitude of recommendation tools.

Because Facebook is the mainstream, has some very simple integration with web content and as such, people may like things by default. But is it right to ‘like’ a news story that is about something abhorrent? It is the implied approval bestowed by ‘liking” something that I am challenging.

So, come on facebook, time to move from the artificial endorsement model and start introducing a broader range of thinking:

Where are the buttons for the following?

‘I really disagree with this, but need to draw it to the attention of a wide audience’
‘I don’t like this but linking to it will make me cool/popular/show up in a new group’
‘Ephemeral surfing distraction’
‘Freakin awesome’
‘It’s ok…’
‘interesting’
‘useful’
‘important’
‘I have already seen this so please stop sending it to me/recommending/sharing’
‘Tickled me’
‘Don’t darken my browser again’